Sonar XL and audio cards- help pls

[old_mgn]

Hi
I am new in the PC recording arena.
I have a PIII 600, 256 Mb Ram, I recently "had" :-) Cakewalk Sonar 2 XL

Which kind of Audio card should i use ? I have now a Soundblaster PCI ...
My target is :
Play on my keyboards (so MIDI recording), + add guitar parts and vocals --> make final mixdown.
So i think i'd need MIDI and audio ports.

My instruments are :
Ensoniq TS12 Master keyboard/synth
Kurzweil P1000
Yamaha DX7 (yes, still works !!!)

Beyer dynamic microphone
Gibson Les Paul
Seagul acoustic guitar

Thak you for your help
mgn

[TeeCee]

How big do you want to make your studio? I wouldn't want to work without my mixer and MIDI patch bay. It sounds like you need a Mic preamp and the ability to take various levels in. I'd at a minimum look into a small mixer (perhaps a Mackie) and get the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 which has an analog stereo pair in and out, a digital stereo pair in and out, and MIDI in and out.

[old_mgn]

Yes , you're right, i should use a mixer.
I don't want to make my studio very big, it is only home recording.

May I record my instruments thru the M-Audiofile card (in order to have several audio tracks in the PC )?
has the m-audiofile card synth feature ? in plain words : how do I listen the tracks i recorded to make the final mix down ?

What would you say about a aardvark 24/96 ?

sorry for those silly questions but i was one of those dinos who use to play piano ...

tnx
old_mgn

[TeeCee]

I can only talk about what I know which is mainly the Audiophile.

If you record audio into the PC and mix it in software, you would play it back out of the PC to hear it. If you record MIDI into the PC, you can either use soft synths or play it back into whatever you recorded it from. The Audiophile does not have an on-board synth.

If you use a multi-track program like SONAR, you can have many tracks of audio and MIDI.

[Martin Hines]

Both M-Audio and Aardvark PCI audio interfaces work well with Sonar.

I happen to have a hobbyist home studio, running Sonar 2XL with both the SoundBlaster Live and Aardvark ProQ10 in my Dell PC. I don't have an external mixer -- I just use the included Aardvark "Control Panel" software to monitor the input levels, and Sonar XL's mixer after all audio tracks are in Sonar.

To hear audio tracks, most audio cards have both headphone jacks AND 1/4" audio out jacks for connection to monitors. I have my SB Live card hooked up to PC speakers to hear "normal PC stuff". My Aardvark outputs are hooked up to 2 Yamaha powered monitors.


One nice feature of the Aardvark 24/96 and the DirectPro Q10 are their "combo" input jacks. These jacks can support XLR mic connections OR 1/4" line inputs (for instruments like your keyboards). They also have 48V phantom power, so you don't need a mic preamp

http://www.aardvark-pro.com/aasd-v1/products/2496-main.html

The DirectProQ10 goes one step further and allows 2 of its combo inputs to be used as "HiZ" inputs, meaning you could connect an electric guitar directly without any guitar pre-amp.

http://www.aardvark-pro.com/aasd-v1/products/q10-main.html

Most of these "pro" audio cards come with one set of midi IN/Out ports. However, since you have two keyboards, you might need to buy a separate midi interface. M-audio (Midiman) makes USB midi interfaces ranging from 1 set of In/Out ports to 8 sets

http://www.midiman.net/products/midiman/usbmidi.php

As a "plug", I purchased my Aardvark DirectPro Q10 and Midiman 8x8 USB midi interface from Sweetwater.

[Justin]

Don't forget the mixer!

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Notepad/


Sorry, I just like this mixer.... :)

[old_mgn]

I am getting lost, my friends.
Here is what i would do with my studio :
a) record MIDI tracks (so i can erase errors ......), one track at the time (my sequencer is Sonar)
b) Record Audio tracks (guitar, bass, voices). It could be interesting to have up to 4 voices at the same time but it is not mandatory.
c) play MIDI tracks to record audio (using my synths)
d) make final Eq, + effects + mixdown.

I'd like to listen the results thru my PC (now I have a soundblaster PCI card .....)

From your reply I understood :
- I can buy a M-Audiophile or Aarvark card to do points (a,b,c), I can drive my 3 midi modules using midi thru.
- use the existing Sb card for point (d).

is it right ?

tnx again
old mgn

[Justin]

Nope, the Audiophile or Aardvark card would replace the Soundblaster.
So all your audio in and out would run through it. You can run your midi data through the audio card if it has a midi port, but we usually recommend you get a dedicated
midi interface. If you only have a few instruments, look at the motu fastlane usb.
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FastlaneUSB/
or
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MIDISport/
which will give you 2 in and 2 out.

[jeharris]

old_mgn:

Sonar XL works well with a host of cards, but I'll basically stick with the one's I know. I personally use it with the M-Audio Delta 1010 LT. This card has 8 ins/8 outs, SP/DIF In/Out on Coaxial, MIDI in/out, XLR Mic connectors with pre-amps.

I'll said all of that to say that you DO NOT want to dismiss purchasing a mixer. My initial purchase of that particular card, was because as I thought then: "I do not want to use a hardware mixer". BOY, was I wrong! I've since purchased a Mackie 1202VLZ Pro. The thing's absolutely fantastic! How I ever got along without it I do not know. I also thought that I would not want to use virtual instruments. WRONG!!!!! That's all I use now, because there are so many fine VSTis/DXIs out there and they sound just as good as the real thing.

4 voices? Do you do all of the vocal work yourself? Are you talking lead and harmonies? If so, you can shape your backing vocals, sing one part and use a plugin like VoiceMachine or Decabuddy for send effects. the MIDI harmony parts that either creates are awsome! If you're talking about micing 4 different vocalist, then you'll love the Mackie listed above.It has four extended dynamic range mic premaps and four XLR balanced mic connectors. And these are the one's that are used on the high priced Mackie mixers and they sound phat!

I'd replace the soundblaster card, or I'd add another one, perhaps the M-Audio 2496 or the M-Audio Dio2496 as they both go for around the same amount street priced. I'd keep the soundblaster as an additional card, only if you're using soundfonts and you need to use them from the card via another application such as Sebelius, which relies on the card having a wavetable synth. Just remember, you CAN load them from within Sonar XL, but most pro cards i.e.: M-Audio are devoid of wavetable synths, so that's where the soundblaster will come in handy for a non-ASIO/Directsound based application. NOTE: Sebelius, if you're not familar with it, is scoring software a la Finale, but BETTER.

Insofar as monitoring the mix is concerned, if you purchase one of those cards and a mixer and set everything up, (there's wonderful documentation on mackie's site for setting up mixers with DAWs), you can set the control panel software and plug your phones into the mixer and monitor that way.

Last but not least, on MIDI, definately get yourself a MIDISPORT 2x2 or larger. You will find that in time, it comes in handy. The MIDISPORT 2x2 is around $70 street priced.

:D

[jeharris]

old_mgn:

Another CRUCIAL thing. Up the memory! 256MB? Your minium should be 512MB. If you can, go to 1GB.

:D